Coming Together for a Purpose

Submitted by Habitat West Palm on Mon, 01/09/2012 - 04:03

Early Saturday morning, we, the Notre Dame College students volunteering for Habitat for Humanity in West Palm Beach, Fla., this week, scurried away from the bitterly cold weather of Cleveland and fled south in search for something more than warm temperatures, sunny days and beautiful beaches. After all, if we learned anything from last year’s trip to Jacksonville, it was that Florida’s weather is perfectly capable of mimicking Cleveland’s. We came here for a much greater purpose. We came here to help build a home for people less fortunate than us.

West Palm Beach’s pleasant weather is a nice bonus, however. And to this point our trip has been full of entertainment and surprises. People have fallen face-first trying to get out of the vans at rest stops. Others’ wallets have escaped the vans and landed on the road, decorating the cement with brilliant colors of paper. Lights have even flickered during one of our evening reflections. (Is that creepy?)

Despite these minor incidents, we have reached our destination and had a great deal of fun getting to know our teammates for the next week. We are currently staying at one of the local YMCAs, and the set-up slightly resembles a campsite, except that it is indoors. Tonight, we had the pleasure of dining at the restaurant known as Sweet Tomatoes.

Tomorrow, Monday, our week full of hard physical and mental labor commences, as we begin work on the project. We are very excited to have the opportunity to work with each other to make a difference in a family’s life! We are also looking forward to finally meeting the students from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, who will be working with us on the project.

Check back regularly for more updates on our adventures in West Palm Beach!